Paul
You are truly correct when you urge everyone to check church records for each person you are researching.  I cannot understand not doing this as a matter of good practice.

Now, you asked me some time ago if I had any examples of "banns" and I can only give to you the following information which you may already have.

Early colonial churches, by law, had to be Anglican (usually Episcopalian church of England) or some other approved church such as Jewish.  Church of England offered their members two methods of marriage, by license or by banns.  By license was normally used by those who wanted to impress someone, who had a bit of money, and/or who wanted to marry other than in their normal church parish.  Those records, in England are found in a variety of places.  The other method, by banns, was where the proposed marriage was announced in the church of both the bride and the groom.  It usually was done in three succeeding Sundays and members of the church had the right to raise obstructions, give criitcisms or warnings. Often notice of such utterings ae given directly in the register as margin notes etc. It also served as a notice to all members that the wedding would take place and was an open invitation to attend.

In colonial churches this was also the law.  An additional law passed very early in England stated copies of all registers had to be made and sent to the archbishop of each diocese.  THE BISHOP OF LONDON WAS THE HEAD OF THE DIOCESE FOR AMERICAN COLONIAL CHURCHES.  THUS CHURCHES HERE WERE, UNDER LAW, SUPPOSED TO SEND REGULARLY COPIES oF THE ENTRIES TO lONDON.  However, much as we could use those, evidently no such effort was routinely made.  I have personally checked the files in Lambeth Palace, London, the repository of the Bishop of London records and could find no such registers.  There are some papers that might be helpful to some searchers but no register.
However, I often hear rumours of some records being "somewhere" in Eng.and but none have surfaced that I know.  A searcher does need to always look and hunt for things still come out of the woodwork.  Just a few years ago, a book of banns, found daylight in Fishlake a small parish in Yorkshire England.  Vestry gooks and even account books will often give information regarding the comings and goings of families.  I specialize in British and Irish research and am continually looking for such things.

Banns in colonial churches were normally performed in Anglican, Roman Catholic and Grman oriented churches.  The same is quite true today.  Many of the books of banns are still in existence but I find no traces of really early ones.
The state Maryland Archives does hold some books of banns of Maryland churches but I believe them to be 19th century.  Unfortunately many of us research Scotch-Irish and Presbyterians do not have nor did they have have Church Banns for marriages.

I have not checked all the states nor all the counties.  Occasionally I find a few things in MSS collections normally by searching NUCMUC or some other file.  I do believe a lot of material is "hidden" in MSS collections.

If any of the west coast listers on this list are interested, LINDA JONAS of McLean Virginia will be here in Los Angeles on August 13th doing an all day seminar on Making British and Irish Connectins - Colonial Records.  She is an expert in both British research and Colonial research and will be addressing many of these problems.  Included in the cost is a full English Tea for lunch. Information can be found at British Isles Family History Society-USA I know both I and Evelyn Wallace from this list are attending.

Forgive me for bending your ear.  You do a terrific job.
Nancy Bier 


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